Title: Financial Inclusion and the Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract: Financial inclusion has been presented in some policy documents as an instrument of poverty eradication in the developing world. It promises to enhance poor families' ability to minimize financial shocks, undertake human capital investments in health and education and/or engage in modest asset accumulation in order to take advantage of promising investment opportunities in their economies. However, the financial sectors in most sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have been found to be unwilling or unable to serve the poorest segments of the populations. This renders access to finance still a key challenge in stimulating growth and poverty reduction in SSA. Therefore, this chapter discusses the different ways in which financial inclusion can help achieve the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all by 2030. The discussions also provide pointers to some of the challenges that need to be addressed. One key message is that financial inclusion alone may not provide the poorest segments of African populations with the skills and competences they need to find pathways out of poverty. For this reason, inclusive finance must endeavour to strengthen individuals' control over their lived situations and reinforce their beliefs in their personal efficacy to pull them out of poverty.
Publication Year: 2019
Publication Date: 2019-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 37
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